The world turns
by Glittery-excuse-for-a Fae
Summary: Just a little something that came to me at about three this morning after finishing work I won't put any more here because it will give it away merlin Arthur OC enjoy
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**** Not mine belongs to the BBC**

**Authors notes: ****pure angst but I hope you like!**

The World moves on as Arthur and Merlin sleep, the weeks pass and the years until the two brave men are nothing more than legends, but one remembers.

A young sixteen year old girl can sometimes be seen flitting here and there in the ruined castle of Tintagel, the ruined castle that was once known as Camelot.

She speaks soo infrequently that she forgets what her voice Is for, and when she remembers, in front of the innocent young sightseers she imparts the story of Arthur and Merlin telling it with such reverence that the children she speaks too feel like it has only just happened, that Merlin and Arthur rode away yesterday and have just been frozen in time.

When the children run back to their parents the girl weeps, she weeps for her brother and she weeps to be soo alone.

The children fall asleep in their cars or tour busses and when they wake, safe in the arms of their parents, the girl is but a dream but the story of Arthur and Merlin lives on.

For the girl it feels like weeks have passed, weeks since the king ascended the throne, and weeks since they went in search of Nimueh, but it is not it has been years.

When the girl sleeps, she dreams, and in her dreams everything is fine, the king is on the throne and her brother is his trusted advisor, and Gaius talks of moving to leyonesse. Everything is right in the world.

As the girl sleeps the enchantments that she has woven fall away and she is seen as she should be, an old and withered woman, as thin as a rake with her hair white in the moonlight.

Sometimes she forgets when she wakes and she calls for her brother or for Gaius or for Gwen, then she remembers and she starts the day with tears.

Sometimes she has visitors that stay, a stray cat, a sparrow, a family of mice, but over the years they too wither and fade, and she wonders why she bothers.

Every day she walks down to the orchard and picks four red apples, and every day come rain or shine she walks down the cliff and into a cave. There she sees the frozen faces of her brother and the king, and it is there that she leaves the apples. She sometimes talks to them, but not for as long anymore, she has run out of things to say.

When the tourists go home they leave behind their rubbish, empty crisp packets and plastic bottles of drinks, she wonders what these things are, because she has become soo detached from the world that she doesn't understand their habits.

There was a time, fifty years or so ago when she understood everything, Motor cars, Sandwiches, Parasols, lemonade, picnic, but now she doesn't feel interested, she just feels hollow.

She has long since forgotten the voice of her brother, his smiles, and the way he used to annoy her. But she remembers the last thing that he wrote to her, on a scrap of parchment that has now turned to dust.

He wrote

"_When the world has need of us we will return"_

And she wonders if he thought about what he would be leaving behind, who he was leaving behind, she decides that it would be better to know when that time was, she could at least be prepared for it.

The world turns and Tintagel crumbles a little more, more of the once majestic city falls into the waves and is forgotten. She wonders if the day when The king and his advisor awake will be sooner rather than later, because at this rate there will be nothing left to rule over.

She sometimes weaves her enchantments a little too well and she sees the past, It is then that she wishes that she didn't have such power. Because she walks long in the past and is able to forget, but when she remembers and the spell she has woven has ended, she feels like her heart has been ripped in two, the hunger for the past and the hunger for the future to come is sometimes too much, and she forgets her task.

When the queen left this world she made the girl promise to protect Camelot, protect the king and his advisor until the time that they should return. She promised, and did not realize what her cost would be.

She realizes now, but it is too late to renege her promise, and anyway, what has she got to go to if she leaves, who can she go to, where can she go? Lyonesse has long since closed its gates to her and she would not be able to live in this new world of loud noise and change.

So she stays and she brings apples to the cave by the sea, because one day they will awaken and no doubt they will need sustenance.

The world turns and the girl gives up her illusion, and people see her for who she really is. She is tired of pretense, she is tired of the walk to the cave, she is soo tired.

She lies down on her bed of moss, and the world turns.

When she wakes it will be because her king and her brother have need of her.

The tourists come, and some children who have seen her before weep at the plight of the young girl. They carry apples from the orchard down to the cave on the cliff and they plead with the two men encased in magic to wake.

Strong hands carry the girl to Lyonesse; soothing voices talk to her and promise her that they have returned that the world had need of them, that she had need of them.

Fin


	2. the world Slows

The days pass in Lyonesse, things pass slowly, here there is no evil to fight and Merlin's magic grows sluggish from lack of use, the king however is a just ruler. But the girl doesn't think anything can be like it was before, when she was younger,

She sometimes talks long to the young maids of the castle who are always up for tales of dashing heroes, and in those times she realizes that she is happy, when she finishes her tale she is left with that small emptiness that she cannot put a name to.

She has come to womanhood here in Lyonesse, a womanhood that she is not ready for, her heart and soul still long for the childhood that she misplaced in order to care for her king.

She doesn't feel upset that she missed out on so much, because she did it for her brother too, not just the king, so that proves to be a small consolation. What doesn't, is Arthur parading young men in front of her as if trying to make her chose one. Each one receives a smile and a whispered hello and that is all; she never hears the arguments the king has with Merlin afterwards.

Spring in Lyonesse comes quickly this year and as per all other springs the girl is out in the open, talking to the creatures as only she knows how.

Sometimes she is watched by The king, and other times by Merlin, but they are distant to her now, as if they don't know how best to thank her, she doesn't reprimand them, after all, what words can you give to one who has been soo detached from life for so long for one cause, for your cause.

So they watch her, and do no more.

She laughs over the antics of the birds and that makes the people happy, they have grown worried about the king's ward.

She spends all day in the fresh air and she attends the feast in the evening wearing her torn dress and barefoot, the king's dignitaries frown upon her, but the king just smiles and asks her how her day has been, on rare occasions she will reply in detail and beg him to join her. He shakes his head telling her he is busy and wonders when he turned into his father.

She talks to Merlin more often, about little matters, things that are of little consequence, she brings him injured animals, and he heals them for her.

Merlin realizes that he hasn't smelt his sister's magic in a while and wonders when she stopped using it.

Summer this year sees the castle with a good crop, which will last them well through the winter.

The girl or woman as she now is weaves among the dancers at the feast trying to find her brother, something clasped lovingly in her hands.

She finds him and passes the thing to him, and he sighs, because for once she has brought him a thing that he cannot save.

He sighs because he hates the look on her face when he says there is nothing he can do. She weaves once again through the dancers and out of the hall. The kitten in her now shaking hands is cold to her touch and she wondered why she hadn't noticed before.

She digs the dry ground by the roses and decides that here is the best place to put it, surrounded by such beauty, for a beautiful creature never allowed to come to its fruition.

A hand is warm on her shoulder as she lays the kitten in its resting place.

Arthur uses words of comfort but she is not crying, he marvels at her, she is a riddle, and whereas he figured out Merlin's riddle a long time ago he has yet to ponder hers.

She detaches his hand and walks quietly on bare feet back to her room, not even bothering to clean her nails of the earth underneath them.

The next morning there is a kitten outside her door and she takes it in and gives it some food, petting it and praying that it will not share the same plight as the one from yesterday.

Weeks pass and the king and people breathe a collective sigh of relief as the young woman seems to be becoming more humanized to the world and any day now she will take a husband.

Merlin says nothing to dissuade these rumors, but he knows what his sister is like.

She still is as wild as ever, spending the day out in the open and coming home barefoot and unkempt, but she smiles and she converses easily with dignitaries and other royals and the king is pleased.

Autumn and the leaves fall, the young woman catches leaves in her hands and raindrops on her tongue, marveling at, how everything turns full circle, she laughs when her brother joins her and they both spin around together catching leaves and rain. He wonders if she has always been like this, or if it was just after the endless sleep that she changed.

He wipes her muddy feet with leaves and wishes that autumn could last forever. They run back to the castle together and laugh long into the night.

Arthur sometimes joins them and the transformation in the three of them is called magical by some of the villagers.

Just before winter arrives the woman hears voices outside the gates of Lyonesse and the voices sound mystical and wonderful and altogether like something she has been missing out on.

But Merlin is there and somehow she forgets about the voices with his laughter.

In the dark of the night however she remembers and she realizes that she has to see what life outside Lyonesse is like, after all she can always come back.

Clothing herself in her old clothes and a worn cloak she crept out of her rooms and out to the gates.

In the morning, and for weeks after the king orders men to search for his ward, Merlin councils him to let her come back in her own time but the king does not listen.

As winter turns to spring he still looks out to the gates and hopes for the woman's return.


	3. The World Ends

Everywhere the woman went, she told a story, the story of her brother and the king.

The people tried to make her stay, muttering about chills and proper shoes and coats but she never listened.

The woman walked the earth, she could no longer stay in one place for to long as demands were being made so she walked the earth, telling of the wonders of Camelot and its king, Arthur.

Sometimes she forgot if she had been to a place before nor not, but it didn't matter, no-one remembered her.

She tried to get back a few times, to Lyonesse but she could never find the gates, so she had a new Purpose then, to ask in return for a story about the gates of Lyonesse.

But few had news of the lost gates of Lyonesse, and few now wished to hear stories of long dead heroes.

So she walked.

Sometimes at night when she would dream she would see her brother and Arthur, playing at catching raindrops on their tongues and leaves in their hands and it would sadden her because no matter how she called out to them they never heard her.

The mornings after the dreams were the worst. She had to force herself to carry on.

Merlin had long since tried to talk sense into the king; he would be out at cock crow, sometimes before to look for the girl. He would come back late at night haggard and tired and shake his head, that was all Merlin needed to know.

Merlin wondered if she wherever she was, was thinking about them, whether she missed them, or weather now that she had no ties to Lyonesse she was having fun, but that didn't sound like her.

He hoped that she would be trying to find her way back, because he would.

That evening the king ordered a celebration, it would have been her birthday today, Merlin chastises himself for forgetting.

She sits up one evening sits bolt upright and almost screams, she has just had an all too real dream, she had seen Arthur and Merlin, the king at the head of the feast table, an her brother next to him, the rest of the group were standing, all robed in black, goblets lifted in salute to an empty chair and she remembers.

It would have been her birthday today, she would have been another year older, and she would have… Should have been with those that loved her the most, she had to find her way back to Lyonesse.

The days passed and the courtiers notice that the king is tired and that his advisor is in a black mood most days, and they too join the search for the young girl. They don't know what she looks like but they have to try for the king's sake.

No-one leaves through the gates, people have said that that is what the girl did and she has never returned. They shudder at the thought.

She walks to a large building in what he has now come to know as England, Not Albion anymore, England.

This big building has big letters above the door and she cannot read them because they are foreign to her. So she walks inside, in her tattered trousers and dirty shawl.

People look at her as she walks past them.

She stares back, and it unnerves them so they have to look away, she chalks it up as a victory. She sees a man behind a desk and she clears her throat making him look up, he gives her a disdainful stare and she stared back

"I'd… Where am I?"

"Your in the Library can I help you with anything?" He asks with a sneer,

She nods, so this is a library, Arthur had one in Camelot years ago.

"I'd dearly like some books" she said in a horse voice

"Well that's one thing this place has a lot of" the librarian said in a patronizing voice.

"Do you know who I am?" She asked raising herself up to her full height

The Man mock bowed "What books would you like to see?"

"Anything that makes reference to Lyonesse"

"What?" He asked her.

"Please I have to get back there" her voice breaks and she can no longer talk.

He nods and Takes her to a table on her own and collects some of the oldest volumes in the library, placing them in front of her and grabbing a pen and a few sheets of paper. He lets her work and after an hour comes back with a cup of coffee and part of his sandwich.

She turns her nose up at the coffee but drinks it nevertheless, she eats the sandwich in two bites and the old librarian wonders about this young girl who looks like she has just stepped out of a costume drama. It seems she has too many years behind her eyes.

Arthur Leads a party of his most Brave knights out to the gates of Lyonesse, some turn back, some refuse and he tells them that it is their choice to make, he will not think less of them, the rest that follow gasp as their king walks through the gates of Lyonesse and out into the world.

The world is no longer safe that was what people had said when the girl had left. That the people outside the gates had kidnapped her, that they were evil people.

Arthur didn't believe that.

He walked through the gate and his knights had to follow.

They walked straight out onto a main road.

They weren't to know what century it was.

The girl by now had scoured all the large old books, some she was sure she had seen in Gaius' chambers once upon a million years ago she had enough pages to start a book herself, but she clutched the papers to her as if they were her lifeline, which they were.

She smiled at the old librarian; he had been kind to her in his way, what with the coffee and the lunches, she had found out a bit about him, he could trace his kin all the way back to when England was called Albion, and his name was Gaius. She ran out of the library as if her life depended on it.

She had in her notes enough to tell her vaguely where the gates where but not the exact location, they must have moved over the centuries, She wondered why.

Arthur had scoured the land for the girl and still could not find her, some of his knights had decided to remain in the world outside of Lyonesse, and others chose to come back with the king.

Merlin kept to his chambers and would not speak to anyone, Arthur wondered if his dear friend was dieing, and wondered what he could do, his advisor, his friend had been with him through everything with him and to loose him now it didn't bear thinking about.

So he looked in all of Merlin's books of magic for an answer to this problem.

The problem of bringing _her _back.

They had no answers and he threw them across the room in disgust.

Merlin heard the kings temper and wished he could do something to help but he had no words for his friend any more, what consolation could he give to the sovereign when he had voiced them all already. So he kept to his rooms and looked after the cat that Lillith had left behind.

The courtiers despaired and some of the peasant women wept to see the Advisor and the king at loggerheads, both uncaring towards the others suffering.

As the woman walked she saw people who looked like her friends, the first time that this happened she called out to them, on this first occasion it had been someone that looked like the queen, and she had called out, thinking for one brief moment that the kind queen had been sent to lead her home, but the woman turned to her and took in her appearance it was not the queen.

A few times she had called out but they all regarded her with the same look, that of distain, and she knew it was not them then, because none of her friends would look at her like that.

After the first fifty times she stopped calling out, and after the first twenty times she stopped sobbing with regret.

The king now had stopped looking for the flighty young woman with raven hair and had another to occupy his time, a young girl with red hair, an orphan of the storm that had hit three months ago, she was called Carys.

The people murmured behind closed doors, words like replacement and uncaring passed a lot of lips, but few who were wise whispered about loss and grief, and some who cared not to whisper were inclined to listen to the words of the wise.

The king's advisor however, snubbed the girl and would not consent to be in the same room as her.

The days grew long in Lyonesse and the king began to smile again.

Lillith smiled in her sleep as she dreamt of home, she saw the king was happy and she was glad, she did not wish him to be sad anymore, she saw that Merlin was unhappy however and wished that she could offer some comfort to him, to tell him that she was trying to get home and that he should have hope, but she could not make him hear her.

The king argued long into the night with his advisor, trying to make the warlock understand that Carys was not a replacement, but Merlin would not listen and shouted back words of hate for the girl with the fiery hair.

He left the castle and left the kingdom that so mirrored Camelot, and no entreaties from the king would make him return.

He set about making a hut near the gates to Lyonesse, it was crude and sparse but he sat in there day after day. Waiting.

Sometimes he would tell tales to the children that passed about King Arthur and his deeds, and other times he would tell them about his sister and how she loved the spring and all the things that the three of them would do, such as hunt for unicorns just to watch them for a while, or hold council with the fey folk for amusement.

It made the children sad not to be able to see those times of so long ago, so they returned time after time to hear the stories again and again,

Carys came one evening and stood in the shadows listening to the warlock tell his tale of the fey folk and how his sister had danced and sung with them once upon a time, and it made her sad.

When the children had gone home she stayed in the shadows, tears coursing down her face, for the children it had been a tale of mystery and humor, for her the way Merlin spoke it was a heart wrenching tale of a beloved sibling and his loss and hope for the future, she kept to the shadows, but Merlin knew that she was there, he invited her inside for a drink.

They talked long into the night and wept, and laughed and Merlin took back what he had said about Carys, she had found a way into his heart, but still he would not return to Camelot.

Lillith had watched the world go by for soo long she couldn't remember when she had stopped trying to interfere. But now she had a new purpose, find the gates to Lyonesse.

She ended up back at Tintagel, the place where this had all started soo many years ago.

She watched the children playing at being knights and she tried to remember a time when she had been soo carefree and happy and found that that time was when she had been catching leaves in hands and rain on her tongue and the king, Arthur had joined her and her brother.

She had a few bright ideas however, she could just reverse time a bit, to when there was a real Camelot, to stop this all happening because then she wouldn't be here now.

But every time the incantation came to her lips she discarded it, spitting it aside like a bad taste in her mouth.

The world outside Lyonesse, she had learnt is harsh and cutthroat and not mystical in the least, it is brutal and she wondered why she didn't see it before, and why she wanted to be here so badly, because this is not the world she wanted to see, a world without magic, a world of pain and grief and war and fear.

She would not have missed out on anything if she had stayed with her brother and the king; this world has no need for the likes of her.

But she cannot leave now; she needs to find a way back, something that she is failing royally to do.

So she sleeps and the world turns.

She sees the king in her sleep, Sweet Arthur who had taken her in and made her his ward, He is lying on his bed and his hair is limp about his face, his face looks gray and worn down and what surprises her most is that Merlin is nowhere to be seen, but the girl Carys is and Lillith thinks that maybe that's the right way for the king to go, with his new ward at his bedside soothing him, not with one that had run away.

What use can she be now?

But she continues to dream and she sees Merlin, searching franticly through all the books of magic, trying to find Lillith a way back and she smiles even though she knows he cannot see her, because he will find nothing in those books.

She whispers a soft goodbye and sorry before getting up from her slumber.

Brushing her hair and robbing herself all in black she walked to the cliffs edge and jumped. She was not wanted in Lyonesse and she could not abide here.


	4. the world begins anew

The world has been turning for hundreds of years and will go no doing so for many years after we have passed into forgotten memory, here is the last on Lillith that has been written, make what you will of it.

She was sure she should be dead, after all a jump from a cliff is fatal weather you possess magic or no.

But she is not dead because if she were she would not feel rain soaking through her thin black dress.

The rain continued to pour and she wondered if she was in heaven, but she had never heard that it rained in heaven, not from all the tales that the monks loved to tell.

She lay there until she saw feet walking towards her.

"I was wondering where you had got to, come on, Gwen's waiting"

Then a hand pulled her to her feet.

"Gwen?"

"Yes are you all right, what were you doing out here and what on earth are you wearing?"

Lillith took a look at the person that was speaking to her and suddenly her legs couldn't support her anymore and she fell back to the ground.

In front of her was a raven haired youth with piercing blue eyes, merry eyes

"Where am I, is this heaven?"

The boy laughed, a sound full of mirth and joviality

"No Lillith you're in Camelot, honestly I sometimes wonder about you" said the boy shaking his head

"Wonder about me? Who are you?"

"Now that was uncalled for, I know I may have called you some unforgivable names last night but I didn't mean them, it's just that I miss home too and you don't make it easy" said the boy talking her hand and entwining his fingers with hers

"You did, you do, and I don't?" Lillith was sure she was in some sort of limbo because this boy before her was the spitting image of her brother in his younger days, in the days before Arthur was king, in the days before Camelot had crumbled.

She wondered what was going on.

"Come on hurry up, Gwen needs you for a fitting for your new dress and then you are needed at the kitchens.

"Kitchens, Gwen, I don't understand… Who are you?"

This apparition of her brother tuted and dragged her towards Gwen's house before knocking on the door and walking off.

Gwen greeted her the way that the Gwen of soo many years ago had done, with a warm hug and mindless chatter about a million different things. She smiled back, bemusedly and she wondered that if this was heaven then why did she have to wear dresses, and why was Gwen, sweet Gwen, the queen, helping her as if she was the servant, things were not right in this heaven at all.

"Umm where am I?"

Gwen laughed softly

"You're in my house Lillith, are you feeling all right, maybe you have come down with something"

"I jumped off the cliff at Tintagel, I should be dead" Lillith blurted out

Gwen laughed again and cuffed Lillith lightly round the head "You probably had a bad dream that's all, Morgana gets them all the time"

"Morgana, she's here still?'

"Yes where else would she be?"

"And Arthur?"

"What about his royal highness the prince?"  
"The king you mean" Lillith corrected her

"Prince Arthur"

"He's the king"

"Not unless Uther's died overnight and I haven't heard yet he's not"

Lillith shook her head confused

"The last thing I remember was trying to find the gates of Lyonesse; I despaired, and dressed in this to alleviate myself."

"I don't understand" was Gwen's answer.

"I couldn't find the gates I couldn't live in the world outside Lyonesse so I did the only rational thing; I jumped from the cliff near here"

"There are no cliffs for at least three days ride Lillith, as I said, it was a bad dream, ask Gaius if he can give you something for them"

"It wasn't a dream Gwen" Lillith protested "It was real, Albion was no longer called Albion, it was England, They had whole places dedicated to books and history, they had things that had motors and four wheels, they had crisps and boxes with pictures, it was no dream, where am I now?"

"Lillith this is Camelot, we are under king Uther's reign, and I think you had better go and see Gaius, maybe you hit your head last night at the feast."

"I did no such thing Gwen, I never went to the feast, I was outside the crumbling remains of Camelot, which had been renamed Tintagel, I awoke and jumped off the cliff"

"If you jumped off a cliff, how can you be here now? You'd be dead"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Lillith said sitting at Gwen's table and resting her head on her arms.

"Was it an enchantment?"

"I did magic Gwen... it was me"

"Hush, say no more, I do not need to lose anyone else this month"

Lillith yet again looked confused

"My father Lillith" said Gwen her voice hitching a little

"Oh Gwen I'm sorry, but it was me, in fact you asked me to stay, and look after the king and his advisor"

"What?"

"You told me to look after King Arthur and his advisor Merlin, until the day that they would wake again, I was all alone Gwen, no-one else there, just me, it drove me mad"

"What happened?"

And so Lillith told her whole sad story up until seeing her brother.

"I think I might be dead Gwen, how else can you explain it?"

"Maybe the kings advisor, Merlin that is, maybe he couldn't bring you back, so he sent you here"

"Why would he do that?"

"maybe he knew you wanted another chance at life, maybe he didn't want to see you soo upset… there are lots of reasons, but most of all I think he wanted you to be happy"

"But… I've seen soo much Gwen, how can I be normal after that"

"Time will heal all wounds"

"Really?" asked Lillith with a sad smile.

"Oh yes, just you wait and see"

Lillith let a few tears seep from under her eyes "See there is the queen I came to know and love" she said brushing the tears away with the heel of her hands

"Come on lets get this dress fitted"

And then it came back to Lillith, it was April and Gwen had fitted her for a dress for her birthday in may, it would double as the dress she would have worn for the may day celebrations. She had kicked up a fuss about wearing a dress until Gwen had despaired and told her not to bother and they hadn't talked for a few months over it, but kindhearted Gwen had repented in the end and buried the hatchet and they had been firm friends ever after.

"Sure, what colors have I to choose from?"

Gwen looked at her "You want this dress?"

"Yes I do, its nice of you and my brother to think of me having something soo nice for my birthday, I feel honored"

It was Gwen's turn to wipe away tears as she said "Oh what nonsense, it's your birthday you deserve to have nice things to wear once a year"

Lillith hugged Gwen and they both looked over the colors and fabrics for the dress, talking of noblemen and boys, just like Lillith had never been away, which to Gwen she had not.

After her fitting she ran to the kitchens and got stuck into every task the head cook gave to her, which mostly encompassed cleaning the pots and pans. Whereas the old Lillith would have complained about this boring task this new Lillith reveled in it, complementing the cook on the flavor of the sauce or the texture of the pudding, because something the old Lillith never realized was that if you clean the pots you get to sample the food.

After working at the kitchen, even though she was exhausted she went to Gaius to see if he needed anything done.

When it transpired that nothing needed doing she went to see the Dragon.

"Dragon!"

Ahhh little Lillith you have returned"

"You knew?!"

"Yes"

"You could have warned me!"

"And where would the fun be in that?"

"It would have been nice, I've gone half mad!"  
"Are you mad now?"

"No I'm not, I seem to be back to normal, whatever normal is, and will I ever forget though?"

"Would you like to?"

"I don't know"

"Good" and with that the dragon flew off leaving Lillith in the empty cave.

That evening she sat with Gaius and Merlin as they talked of their day as they ate dinner together,

"Lillith are you all right, you seem very reserved and quiet" Gaius asked her

"No I've… I'm fine now; I'm glad that I'm back"

"Did you go somewhere?" the old Physician asked her

"Umm I don't know, I don't think so, but if I did, all that matters is that I'm back now" she replied with a blazing smile "I have to go to see the prince"

"You won't get any sense out of him; he's just taken part in the latest tournament." Merlin supplied.

"Maybe that's for the best. She said getting up and going to the door.

Over the years Lillith had learnt stealth, and she employed this now as she crept into the princes chambers, Merlin had been right the prince was asleep on his bed, not having taken his boots off.

Smiling she unlaced his boots and pushed him over so that she could turn down the covers of the bed before pushing him the other way and pulling the covers over him.

She took a seat at the table and watched him sleep

"You know something Arthur; I know that you will be the best king Albion has ever seen, because I was there. You were just, you were kind you were everything this land needs, and you will be all that when its your time, you took me in, you gave me purpose, you were kind to me when others snubbed me for being different, you never gave up hope of finding me when I left, and I should never have left, because I caused you and Merlin soo much trouble, but I'm back now, and I promise I will never go away again, I just wish that you could see what you were like, because you'd never believe me.

But thank you sire, for everything you did for me, although next time you try and marry me off I will restrain you, after all I learnt a few things from where I was… Good night sire, pleasant dreams."

That night she got into bed and instead of silence greeting her she could hear her brother's mumblings, and Gaius' snoring, things that before had annoyed her beyond belief, but now these sound signified home and all the things that she had missed.

If this was heaven then it was a messed up version, and if it wasn't then she would have to find out what it was.

But for now she was happy to be in her bed, scratchy sheets and all, she was happy to hear her brother mumbling in his sleep.

She was incandescent with happiness, and she was home.


End file.
